Picking up from yesterday –
So, we head out on the town, doing some patrolling and such.
First, we found a guy sleeping in a closed park. I felt so bad for him! We started talking about his situation and why he was sleeping in a park. He’d lost his job; his last parent died. One sad thing after another seemed to be happening to him. I wondered, “Is this going to be a morning of all the saddest stuff ever?”
The officers gave him some advice of some places around that could help him – but all of the places that serve the homeless are apparently only open during business hours. There’s needs to be a place that will take people at any time of night.
I know of at least two places in New York City like that (though one is only for younger people – I believe under 22 years old…. but one will take anybody). I know those places can exist. Why don’t they in Santa Monica?
So, I don’t know where the poor park-sleeper went. I do know he looked very tired. For all I know, he walked away for a minute, then went right back to the park. Wherever he went, I hope he’s okay…
We stopped by a 7-11 a little later. I almost wanted to get a donut to try to play into the stereotypical cop role. But, that wasn’t healthy, and it wasn’t fair to police officers. So, I didn’t.
We found two more homeless guys on closed properties. One was trying to tell us a story about how a stranger had given him 50 billion dollars. (The details changed when he told it to Officer Holloway’s partner – not that we really suspected the story was all that legit in the first place.)
Turned out this guy had a number of citations for this same offense. So, he got another one. And that’s all that happened there.
As far as 2nd of those two homeless guys – he was making a bunch of hand gestures, trying to rid himself of the spirits that we were bringing over. He seemed pretty nice to the two officers, but he was not happy to see me there! He just kept asking, “who’s that girl?! I have nothing to do with her! I didn’t steal her stuff!”
We tried to explain that weren’t accusing him of stealing anyone’s stuff. But he was not hearing us. So, I kicked it in the cruiser while the officers talked to him.
This is where I’ll pick up next time.